James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome all the witnesses. The Peter McVerry Trust is in the headlines for the wrong reasons, which has prompted a lot of questions that need to be answered around what merits the Charities Regulator getting involved to undertake investigative work. Under Part IV of the Charities Act 2009, the Charities Regulator has the power to appoint investigators to investigate the affairs of any charitable organisation. I am interested in the inspectorate capacity. Where the regulator feels it may merit, because of the period that has elapsed where the Charities Regulator has not undertaken the auditing of accounts of charities, where does the remit lay? I come from a farming family and in that setting, inspections can be carried out by inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the local authority, the county council or the Health and Safety Authority. Inspectors can show up at a premises unannounced. Where the books are concerned, a body can be investigated by Revenue. Any charity the size of the Peter McVerry Trust can have a large amount of cash received from donations, a significant number of assets and so on. Has the Charities Regulator the power to undertake an investigation itself or does an investigation only taken place on foot of a complaint? In the case of the Peter McVerry Trust, the matter was first raised with the regulator by the chief executive highlighting discrepancies.